From fd07b3aa7c004cd0b74d9a718333f6863b5f18e0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andreas Kohlbecker <a.kohlbecker@bgbm.org>
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2021 15:41:32 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] avoiding NPEs in loadTreeBranch methods

---
 .../etaxonomy/cdm/api/service/ClassificationServiceImpl.java  | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/cdmlib-services/src/main/java/eu/etaxonomy/cdm/api/service/ClassificationServiceImpl.java b/cdmlib-services/src/main/java/eu/etaxonomy/cdm/api/service/ClassificationServiceImpl.java
index 39f39ea896..10c7404b23 100644
--- a/cdmlib-services/src/main/java/eu/etaxonomy/cdm/api/service/ClassificationServiceImpl.java
+++ b/cdmlib-services/src/main/java/eu/etaxonomy/cdm/api/service/ClassificationServiceImpl.java
@@ -280,11 +280,11 @@ public class ClassificationServiceImpl
         TaxonNode node = taxonNodeService.find(nodeUuid);
         if(node == null){
             logger.warn("The specified taxon is not found in the given tree.");
-            return null;
+            return new ArrayList<>(0);
         }else if (subtree != null && !node.isDescendant(subtree)){
             //TODO handle as exception? E.g. FilterException, AccessDeniedException?
             logger.warn("The specified taxon is not found for the given subtree.");
-            return null;
+            return new ArrayList<>(0);
         }
 
         return loadTreeBranch(node, subtree, baseRank, includeUnpublished, propertyPaths);
-- 
2.34.1